Click here to read the transcript of the Christmas Eve edition of the baseball chat
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By Mark Polishuk | at
Click here to read the transcript of the Christmas Eve edition of the baseball chat
MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com
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Are you guys shutting down all threads on sensitive topics now?
I still say “Merry Christmas ” mlbtr, but respect your right to not say it. Wishing everyone a great holiday, and hope Evovaldi will pass his physical and go to the team that will give him the best deal at this time.
Why don’t people say this? Is it offensive to people who don’t believe in God?
Probably not offensive so much as presumptive.
There are several different holidays that are celebrated this time of year so telling someone “Happy Holidays” is a non-specific way of sharing your well-wishes where as saying “Merry Christmas” presumes the person celebrates a specific one of the various holidays that are available.
Personally, I say “Happy Holidays” if I don’t know for sure and “Merry Christmas” if I know they celebrate Christmas. Really not a big deal either way though tbh…best to keep one’s mind at peace and not seek reasons to divide people.
People should be glad someone is nice enough to say anything to you at all. If you don’t celebrate Christmas and you freak out because someone was nice enough to speak to you, just shut up and or say you too.
Probably more along the lines of people realizing that not everyone they come in contact is Christian. But BC – you are welcome to say whatever you want, as you normally do – which is ok.
I am not even a believer in God. I’m just curious. I haven’t heard about it before this year.
Why do people get offended if other people don’t say it?
I would love to know why people care either way.
#DarkSide Exactly
Common W for a fellow Nasty Nate appreciator
It’s probably because I’m too old and have had too much Christmas cheer right now. I’m not one to cause commotion, so I kinda take the high road and just enjoy life and let people enjoy it in ways they want to.
As a Jew, I promise you very few of us care if you saw Merry Christmas. I always appreciate a Happy Holidays, but I don’t think twice if someone says Merry Christmas to me.
Say not saw
Same
Happy Holidays everyone!!!!
Happy holidays and enjoy the break after the long year everyone!
I’m up by 6 Standard format.
I have QB Tua vs GB, K Dicker @ IND
He has Brady and Godwin AZ
Either this is related to a chat comment I haven’t read yet, or you’re *really* lost on the internet.
DICKER THE KICKER
You talk about Reynolds as if he is some kind of star. He plays in a small market for a losing team under no pressure at all and has vanilla stats. He is not worth anywhere near what you say he is worth. I would not even trade Volpe straight up for him.
The Yankees need a good role player in left field, preferably a LH hitter, good defender, good contract hitter. Nobody coming to play under the scrutiny of the NY media from a small market background has the resume to succeed until they get there and do. Internal options like Volpe, Peraza, Dominguez, Wells, and Cabrera have a better chance to succeed in NY than Reynolds would because they don’t come in with the expectations attached if the team gives up a good package for him.
Frankly, I would trade Gleyber Torres for him and that’s about it.
Well, if that’s your offer, you’re never getting Reynolds. He is a star playing in a small market.
Reynolds is not that much different than Aaron Hicks before he got to NY. Look at Benintendi last year. Hits .315 for a small market team under no pressure comes to NY and hits about .245. Torres has played in the pressure cooker Reynolds has not.
The Pirates should keep him and watch the playoffs again.
Aaron hicks before yanks gothim would be great. Unfortunately he looks like 1 tenth of what he was back then
He’s no Greg bird.
This is why people don’t take Yankee fans seriously.
Yankee fans understand there are two kinds of ballplayers: Those who can play in NY and those who can not. For recent examples see Joey Gallo and Sonny Gray.
To recap: you think Reynolds won’t be good in NY… because Beni and Gallo weren’t?
No. I think it is not worth trading valuable prospects in exchange for a player who has yet to prove he can excel in a small market and has yet to play under the pressure such as playing for a contender in a large media market. We are not talking about Mickey Mantle here we are talking about Reynolds.
No one feels pressure playing for the Yanks. They just can’t play without their beautiful beards. They also forget who they are without their names on their jerseys. It’s tough. All my clothes have my last name on them. I collapse under pressure when I forget my last name.
If that’s your honest opinion and assessment of Reynolds, then fair enough. With a career OPS of .842 and OPS+ of 127, I have a different outlook on what “excel in a small market” means. The Pirates are wise to slow play their hand. Prospects are always suspects until proven otherwise, and obtaining a proven (to me) All Star LFer with 3 years of control is going to cost more than you seem to think. Merry Christmas
No disrespect to Reynolds but the Yanks are better off waiting on Jayson Dominguez and Spencer Jones to graduate to MLB than trading assets for Reynolds. That could be happening within a year. I suspect they will make a trade but not for Reynolds.
Yaanks are in win now.mode. jonesand domnguez maybe 2 yrs away. Dominguez has hustle issues
I see both sides to this argument. In general, I am not a big fan of outfielders like Brian Reynolds who build a lot of their value off of defense and baserunning. All you have to do is look at how Jason Heyward and Carl Crawford turned out to realize how quickly those guys can fall off. I prefer teams who focus defense and/or baserunning on middle infielders and catchers. Outfielders need to slug. They are outfielders. They should be crushing the ball as their main attribute. @beboplar is right in the sense that Bryan Reynolds is anything but a slugger. His career could very easily go the way of Jason Heyward or Carl Crawford in a heartbeat. IMO, 2021 is very likely to go down as the best year of Bryan Reynolds entire career which means he is already in the very early stages of decline. I think the Pirates would be wise to trade him now because he reminds me of Heyward and Crawford so I doubt he will age well. His value is only going to get lower the longer they wait.
I don’t agree with @beboplar on the comparison to Aaron Hicks. Not because I think Bryan Reynolds is going to continue to be as great as some other people think. I disagree because I think he fails to acknowledge how much better Reynolds is than Hicks. Regardless of how I feel about Reynolds future he is still currently a well above average player with enough youth to improve any team in baseball. Aaron Hicks is just terrible. They aren’t even close. Reynolds has a lot of positive value while at this point Aaron Hicks is purely negative value. I think maybe he’s afraid that Reynolds will eventually suffer the same fate as Hicks but comparing them both now they aren’t even close. Reynolds still has several valuable years left in him while Hicks is left with nothing but negative value years thanks to his age, injury history and contract.
At the same time I think this is a case of @beboplar overvaluing the Yankees prospects. I hear a lot about Volpe but I strongly doubt he is ever going to be as great as some Yankees fans seem to believe. It seems every single season their are millions of outspoken Yankees fans who love to pretend that the Yankees best prospect is the best prospect in baseball and guaranteed to succeed even though it is rare that that ever happens. He even brought up Gleyber Torres. Remember when Yankees fans were bragging about Torres like he was a future Hall of Famer? It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Volpe ends up like Torres and all of the rest of the prospects he listed end up even worse.
So in this case I do agree with @beboplar that Reynolds is overrated but he’s still clearly far better than the package of Yankees players he brought up because those guys seem to me that they will be disappointing relative to most Yankees fans expectations as Yankees prospects usually are because expectations are so absurdly high. The big thing I disagreed with was the statement that Reynolds is “a player who has yet to prove he can excel in a small market .” Reynolds likely won’t age well in my opinion but the guy put up over 6 wins above replacement one year in a small market. How does that not fit the definition of “excelling in a small market?”
I would take Reynolds over every player combined that @beboplar mentioned. That’s only because I think he is overvaluing those players though. I wouldn’t be surprised if @beboplar was right in the sense that Reynolds ends up like Heyward or Carl Crawford. @beboplar is right in the sense that I agree Reynolds does not have the bat to back up his value long term. The guy will probably never again hit .300 and probably never hit even 30 home runs in a sport where guys like Judge hit over 60. I am worried the rest of his value will fade like Heyward and Crawford did because Reynolds hits more like them than he does the true sluggers. Reynolds is still better than those Yankees prospects though. None of those players will likely ever reach Reynolds status. It seems like more of Yankee prospect worship than anything if anyone believes those guys are actually better than Reynolds even with Reynolds flaws.
I’ll take anecdotal evidence for 100 Alex. What is “Yankees players don’t feel ANY more pressure than any other players”. Period. End of story.
beboplar………………………
“the Yanks are better off waiting on Jayson Dominguez and Spencer Jones to graduate to MLB”.
Is that because they have played in the pressure cooker of the minor leagues?
Dear Mr. Tol’stoi,
We like your novel, but please shorten it for publication. Happy Holidays.
–Your Publishers
The reason the Yanks are better off waiting on Dominguez and Jones is that when a player, such as Reynolds, is acquired in exchange for some cost, and has to enter the pressure cooker of a market such as NY, history has shown those players do not respond well. Reynolds has never been in a pennant race, Reynolds has played in 162 games per season that meant nothing, and Reynolds has never had to hit under the spotlight of the NY media and fans. He has lived a quiet professional life playing on a losing team in a small market, where he is the team’s best player. For his sake I hope he stays there or goes to another small market in trade.
Internal options do not carry the same weight on their backs. The Yankees have not given up assets to bring them to NY and do not have the same pressure. I give Volpe, Peraza, Dominguez, Wells, Jones, Cabrera, etc. every chance to succeed because NY fans will root for them from Day 1. They will also root for Reynolds, but it will take a special individual to succeed under those circumstances.
Call it the Ed Whitson factor.
I agree with a lot of what you said, especially that he’s a bit overrated by Pirates management at least, but they want to maximize trade value so I get it. But he does have a 481 SLG so far in his short career, so he can hit for extra base power. Problem is he’s shown to be very up and down, which drives clubs and fans nuts. But to bank on Dominguez ever reaching Reynolds’ level is so far from guaranteed, so may make sense to take the risk and go for him.
With all due respect, beboplar……….. Poppycock.
I have never seen so many contradictory, convoluted, speculative and hypothetical espousing’s in one statement since the last election cycle.
I don’t have a dog in this fight and I will end my participation in this little roundtable by saying this.
I feel your comments about the player and smaller market teams to be a bit pompous, assuming and anecdotal rather than factual. I also feel and have felt, that the elitist attitude (Oh, so and so can’t handle playing in my city) often put forth by fans of some teams is simply an excuse to cover a poor trade or signing. It’s also, IMO, an excuse for when things go south and a team fails to live up to hope/hype.
If certain cities are too much of a pressure cooker, If certain fanbases and demanding media are the cause of some players failing then perhaps the fanbase and media should look in a mirror and lay-off the player. if the whole “pressure-cooker” mantra is to be believed and accepted as fact, than the fanbase/media that place themselves on such a holier-than-thou plateau would be the problem and not the player.
I have said my piece and will exit this conversation. Have a nice day.
Sonny Gray pitched pretty well in Yankee stadium last September playoff… 6 innings 6 hits 1 earned run.
That pressure cooker… LOL.
Just because they came up in the Yankees system doesn’t mean they will acclimate to the pressure cooker any quicker. They go 0 for 25 and make a couple errors and the boobirds come out. Some guys react to that better than others. Same with guys used to playing in small markets. It’s all up to that individual player how they handle it; and you can’t paint them all with the same broad brush.
Yankee fans are idiots. Pressure cooker.LOL
.pirates want pitching prospects. Maybe yanks have a 3 team trade in the making
Mondesi makes sense for the Red Sox if the Royals are willing to sell low
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Happy holidays!
I don’t agree with the Ian Happ comment. I believe that as he is a union rep, he is probably going to be pressured to at least explore free agency. Not to mention by seasons end Davis, PCA, Alcantara, Caissie, and Canario might all be ready to push for an outfield spot on the big league club. I’d trade Happ straight up for Gleyber Torres or try to include him in a Baty trade.
and Merry Christmas all!
Happy Christmahannakwanzikkule
What about Festivus for the rest of us? BE MORE INCLUSIVE!
No, I don’t care about the rest of you. Haha.
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all, shut the hell up!”
I wouldn’t mind the slightest bit if teams are leery and want to trade for Baez. And if the league is still scared, DET can reassure everyone and sign Correa immediately afterwards. Mmm, yes..
Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals..
and a Happy New Year
Keep the change!
Happy holidays and a blessed New Year
MERRY CHRISTMAS, CHRISTIANS!
“Wherever Americans stand on holiday-time debates on issues ranging from what’s depicted on Starbucks cups to public displays of religious symbols, it’s hard to disagree that Christmas is still a big part of many people’s lives.”
•“90% of Americans celebrate Christmas according to a Pew Research Survey. But only 46% of Americans say they celebrate Christmas as primarily a religious (rather than cultural) holiday.”
•“About 63% of the US is Christian.”
•“88% of the members of Congress self-identify as Christian” but only about 2% are practicing Christians?
I was gotta say “okay then?” to this comment but you saved it with the last sentence.
Merry chritmas!!!
Slow down on the eggnogs Lefty
I think, as usual these days, people get worked up over nothing. If someone says Merry Christmas to you and you don’t celebrate it, why not just take it as the well wish that they intended? If I celebrate Christmas, which I do, why should I have to avoid someone else’s triggers by saying something different? Your triggers are your responsibility, not the world’s.
As an agonistic person, I really don’t get how people are consistently offended by words like God and Christmas. The world won’t accommodate to everyone’s biases, so people should adjust.
When I say Merry Christmas, I’m not forcing you to be Christian. Just like when you say Happy Festice you aren’t forcing me to be Seinfeld.
Merry Christmas.
I wonder if the Dodgers would include a couple top prospects to trade Bauer? Bush, Page and Bauer for some spare parts.
When someone says Merry Christmas do you ask them… “Are you assuming my religion?”
Why would the dodgers trade prospects just to save money? They could cut Bauer and trade someone else to lower payroll while keeping their kids.
Friedman giving up 2 top 100 prospects for salary relief would never happen
Who else would they trade?
Cutting Bauer the Dodgers still pay the $35 mil. They are right at the luxury tax line and any move they make puts them over. Trading Bauer frees up $35 mil to fill holes now or at the deadline.
Bauer, Pages and Busch for Soto and Cisnero. Dodgers get a couple cheap bullpen arms and salary relief and headache relief.
They lose an aging 2b prospect and an outfield prospect.